Distractor – Best Bug
DISTRACTOR
“Best Bug”
This Time I Got It Figured Out
Burger Records, 2018
VIDEO OUT SEPTEMBER 6, 2017!!!
DISTRACTOR DOC: https://youtu.be/PkooWTyD2ZU
Hi we are Distractor, this is the story of our second album. We are not sure how it ends.
We started the band in early 2015 and by March, we had released our 1st album. A month or so later, we had written the follow up, but held off on recording it until we were done with the videos.
In August, Glen, our lead singer, was diagnosed with cancer. We put the band on hold. It was the last thing on our mind. In September, things got worse. By the time October came, Glen had passed.
That was the end of Distractor. We clocked back into our jobs and sat there, crying a bit, and hating the world.
Our friend Levi, started dropping by. He had songs written. We learned them and began playing shows. We called ourselves Blue Flowers.
We had only played three shows as Distractor, so Blue Flowers was our boot camp. The songs were all Levi compositions, but we were off the dock now, heading… somewhere.
We recorded these songs ourselves, then Levi left the country and became seriously ill. In this month of nothing, I got the nagging thought that I wanted to make something with more energy; a little more chaotic. Pretty much I wanted to do Distractor, but I didn’t know it.
It felt like breaking up, but Ron, Colin, and I talked to Levi about it and we would write new songs.
So we did. There was no fan fare; pretty much the first songs we showed to each other became the new set, and eventually the bulk of this album.
I’m not sure what people thought. I think a lot of people thought it was a joke. To be honest, it kind of was, but inside us, it was becoming our life. So we recorded these songs. However, we couldn’t figure out how to mix them ourselves.
Now we are into last fall, one year ago. We still had no album, but we were getting better. Only slightly better, so I don’t think anybody noticed.
We got the opportunity to go into an actual studio late 2016 and record three new songs. We tried not to feel guilty about our unfinished album neglected at home. We got the three songs back and they sounded good. It seemed like the right time…
“Hey you wanna be Distractor again?”
“Yeah”
“Sure”
“OK”
It felt nice. We were good enough to be Distractor again. Now it was time to hopefully tackle our now three-time eluded album.
We got Sean, our bass player back, and he would produce it. We spent three months re-working and re-learning it.
And so here we are.
These last two years, we really had no idea what we were doing and we were hardly sure which way was forward. If anything, the making of this record was the process of us getting back on our feet. It’s not about how low you feel. What ends up defining you is can you say?… “Last time was bad. But this time will be different, I almost lost it all, but this time I got it figured out.”